Based on analysis of multiple outside rankings, Ayotte is an average Republican member of Congress, meaning she will vote with the Republican Party on the majority of bills.

Biography

Ayotte was born in Nashua, New Hampshire. She attended Nashua High School and received a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University in political science. Her thesis was The informal organizational culture's effects on women faculty in the College of Liberal Arts at the Pennsylvania State University.[2]In 1993, Ayotte graduated from Villanova University School of Law, where she had served as editor of the Environmental Law Journal.

Career

Below is a brief summary of Ayotte's political and professional career:[1]

Political career

On June 15th, 2004, Ayotte was appointed as State Attorney General by RepublicanGovernor Craig Benson following the resignation of Peter Heed, who, at the time, was under investigation for sexually harassing a female state employee at a event held at the Mount Washington Hotel. [3]

Issues

Financial disclosure

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which operates the political financial information website, Open Secrets, the then United States Senator-elect Kelly Ayotte failed to file a personal financial disclosure report for calendar year 2009. While there are records showing that the former New Hampshire Attorney General had filed a disclosure form covering the period of time between January 2008 until November 2009, four months after officially launching her Senate campaign, there is nothing to suggest that she delivered the form comprising all of the year 2009. Disclosure rules set down by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics "require any individual Senate candidate who raises or spends more than $5,000 to file a personal financial disclosure report within 30 days of meeting that financial threshold" and continue filing "reports every year he or she continues to be a candidate." [6][7] Filing late with the committee will earn a candidate a $200 fine and "willful falsification of information of failure to file or report information required" can lead to a civil penalty up to $50,000, disciplinary action by the Senate Select Committee on Ethics or criminal prosecution. [6]

Jeff Grappone, a spokesman for the Republican Senator, stated that she was unaware that she needed to file the form. Ayotte, who resigned from her statewide position as attorney general on July 17th, 2009, "received no additional income" for that year and did not believe she "needed to file an additional form," according to a statement released by the campaign. [8] About a day after this report was published, Ayotte's spokesman reported that she had since filed the belated report with the committee. [9]

Abortion

Prior to the launch of her United States Senate campaign, Ayotte had simply stated that she was pro-life. In the run up to her throwing her hat into the Senate campaign ring, however, she clarified her position, arguing that "she would support abortion in limited cases, such as rape, incest or medical emergency." [10] Ayotte had also said that she was "committed to rescinding taxpayer funding of abortion in health care," in particular those concessions made by pro-abortion groups that helped assure the passage of the federal health care reform measure in March 2010. [11]

During the course of her 2010 United States Senate campaign, Ayotte received the endorsement of several pro-life originations, including the Susan B. Anthony List and the National Right to Life PAC, in addition to numerous national pro-life figures such as former Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. [12][13][14]

Presidential preference

Fiscal Cliff

Ayotte voted for the fiscal cliff compromise bill, which made permanent most of the Bush tax cuts originally passed in 2001 and 2003 while also raising tax rates on the highest income levels. The bill was passed in the Senate by a 89/8 vote on January 1, 2013.[16]

Drones filibuster

On March 6, 2013, Senator Rand Paul (R) led a 13-hour filibuster of President Obama's CIA Director nominee, John Brennan. Paul started the filibuster in order to highlight his concerns about the administration's drone policies. In particular, Paul said he was concerned about whether a drone could be used to kill an American citizen within the United States border, without any due process involved. Paul and other civil liberties activists criticized President Obama for not offering a clear response to the question. A total of 14 senators joined Paul in the filibuster -- 13 Republicans and one Democrat.[17][18][19]

According to the website Breitbart, Ayotte was one of 30 Republican senators who did not support the filibuster.[20][21]

The day after the filibuster, Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter to Paul, responding to the filibuster. Holder wrote, "Does the president have the authority to use a weaponized drone to kill an American not engaged in combat on U.S. soil? The answer to that is no."[22]

Expanded background checks on gun sales

On April 17, 2013 the U.S. Senate took a vote on and defeated a measure that would have expanded federal background checks for firearms purchases.[23] The vote was 54-46, with supporters falling six votes short of the required 60-vote threshold.[24] Only four Republican members of the Senate voted for the bill, and Ayotte was not one of them-- making her the sole senator from the Northeast to take part in what was called a "triumph for the National Rifle Association."[25][26] Despite New Hampshire's as well as the region's "long tradition of support for gun rights," one poll this year showed that almost 95 percent of state residents support background checks. Underlining this statistic, in the weeks following her vote against the legislation, Ayotte encountered severe backlash on both the local and national level. In addition to declining job approval ratings, tensions over Ayotte's decision to oppose the Senate's bipartisan efforts--with full backing from the Obama administrion--to stiffen background checks for prospective gun owners came to the fore through a series of tense live interactions at town hall meetings back in New Hampshire in the aftermath of the vote. The town halls were arranged by national organizations such as Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, in partnership with New Hampshire voters and local gun control activists.[26] When prompted by the son of one of the from the Newtown, Connecticut shooting victims to defend her nay vote, Ayotte said she did not believe in the bill's ability to prevent tragedies such as the Newtown elementary school shooting, and instead would like to redirect the debate to target the mental health issues at the root of the violence. She also acknowledged the amount of resistance her vote provoked from colleagues and constituents, saying that “We can have strong disagreements, but ultimately everything should be debated and discussed. And I’ll continue to do that.” Ayotte indicated that she would support measures which, unlike the legislation she recently rejected, would effectively motivate the U.S. Justice Department take their job of enforcing and prosecuting existing gun laws more seriously, and to staunch the sales of firearms on the black market."[26]

As of Public Policy Polling Institute's April 19-21 poll, Ayotte's approval rating dropped 15 percentage points since October, and 50 percent of New Hampshire voters surveyed said that Ayotte’s rejection of the background check plan would make them less likely to support her in a future election, while 23 percent viewed her decision favorably. Ayotte will next come up for re-election in 2016.[27]

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Ayotte is available dating back to 2010. Based on available campaign finance records, Ayotte raised a total of $4,414,291 during that time period. This information was last updated on April 25, 2013.[29]

Kelly Ayotte's Campaign Contribution History

Year

Office

Result

Contributions

2010

U.S. Senate (New Hampshire)

$4,414,291

Grand Total Raised

$4,414,291

2010

Breakdown of the source of Ayotte's campaign funds before the 2010 election.

Ayotte was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. Her campaign committee raised a total of $4,414,291 and spent $3,540,079.[30]

2013

National Journal vote ratings

2012

Each year National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of congress voted in the previous year. Ayotte tied with one other U.S. Senator, ranking 36th in the conservative rankings among members of the U.S. Senate.[32]

2011

Each year National Journal publishes an analysis of how liberally or conservatively each member of congress voted in the previous year. Ayotte ranked 17th in the conservative rankings among U.S. Senators.[33]

Voting with party

2013

Kelly Ayotte voted with the Republican Party 84.4% of the time, which ranked 32nd among the 46 Senate Republican members as of June 2013.[34]

Lifetime missed votes

According to the website GovTrack, Ayotte missed 4 of 580 roll call votes from January 2011 to April 2013. This amounts to .7%, which is better than the median of 1.7% among current senators as of April 2013.[35]

Congressional staff salaries

2011

The website Legistorm compiles staff salary information for members of Congress. Ayotte paid her congressional staff a total of $1,334,769 in 2011. She ranks second on the list of the lowest paid Republican Senatorial Staff Salaries and she ranks second overall of the lowest paid Senatorial Staff Salaries in 2011. Overall, New Hampshire ranks 48th in average salary for senatorial staff. The average U.S. Senate congressional staff was paid $413,476,982 in fiscal year 2011.[36]

Net worth

2011

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org - The Center for Responsive Politics, Ayotte's net worth as of 2011 was estimated between $242,014 to $1,304,997. That averages to $773,505, which is lower than the average net worth of Republican Senators in 2011 of $6,358,668. Her average net worth decreased by 10.42% from 2010.[37]

2010

Based on congressional financial disclosure forms and calculations made available by OpenSecrets.org - The Center for Responsive Politics, Ayotte's net worth as of 2010 was estimated between $422,014 and $1,304,998. That averages to $863,506. The average net worth of Republican Senators in 2010 was $7,054,258.[38]

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Personal

Ayotte currently resides in Nashua, New Hampshire with her husband, Joseph Daley. The couple has had two children together - Katherine and Jacob.